Manifest Destiny

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore; send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

These meaningless words adorn the famous Statue of Liberty in New York’s harbor. At one point in American history this phrase captured and fired the imagination of any and all people around the globe looking for an opportunity for something better in their lives. The beacon of the young, fresh, and still growing at the time, United States called and tired people waiting to exhale answered. Never mind that it was all coming at the expense of Native Americans. The dogma of Manifest Destiny assured the immigrant population that the non-Caucasian natives were not entitled to protect the land from the exploitation of the United States. Then again, non-Caucasian appearing immigrants weren’t entitled to participate in the bounty of the land either. Then again, many African immigrants weren’t immigrants at all but unwilling victims of the United State’s first act of extraordinary rendition.

Manifest Destiny was the name of America’s first “War on Terror”. Through the clever use of propaganda and marketing many Caucasians in America’s earliest history developed a sense of entitlement that permeates their psyche to this date and, one imagines, far into the future. Indeed, it grows the more time goes. There have been Star Trek episodes depicting the future where legendary captains of the starship Enterprise argued humanity’s right to explore and invade space itself at the expense of extraterrestrial cultures. “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

But that’s already somebody’s home. The citizens of planet Zippididoda IV probably don’t see their backyard as a particularly bold and challenging place. But to hell with them! Fire the phasers up to maximum charge and put the warp drive pedal to the warp drive metal ‘cause the Federation is coming through.

It is not exaggeration to say that the traditions and cultures of the people indigenous to what is arrogantly referred to as America, a term rooted in European culture, have been decimated far beyond anyone on this plane of existence can imagine. The people lived in true harmony with their natural environment. For many of these cultures the buildings and structures built by the people could be broken down and moved without a single trace that they were ever there in the first place. People understood the fact that individuals didn’t own the land but lived on the land, co-inhabiting it with other animals. The animals of the land weren’t to be hunted for sport or entertainment. The right’s of other species to exist didn’t evaporate simply because humans with weapons were in the vicinity. If a member of the tribe was killed by a predator it was probably a lesson or a reminder for the survivors to not take the environment for granted and exercise more caution. I’m sure a hunting party to kill the offending bear or lion was unheard of.

Various social structures of the pre-American cultures existed under the assumption that everyone is an equal regardless of their personal possessions. A single individual or a small fraction of the group didn’t benefit or exist at an elevated status of anyone else. Everyone was part of the whole and the whole didn’t exist for the benefit of a few or of one. The community was a chain of individuals who were only as strong as the weakest link. Without everyone to do their share the entire machine of the community would suffer. One would be challenged to imagine a pre-American culture where their sole purpose is the acquisition of materials. It would be just as daunting a task to imagine an indigenous pre-American community existing to provide for the status or for the comfort of just a few members instead of the whole. What would be the point for the members of the community who are not benefiting? Unfortunately not enough people take enough time to seriously contemplate this question.

Many iles around the globe claim to operate under traditional African concepts of community and faith in Orisa and ancestors. However, there are a couple of points that need to be taken into consideration. First, it should be noted that African spirituality predates “Africa”. The word Africa is derived from the tribes of people who lived off the southern coast of the Mediterranean collectively known as the Afri. The suffix “ca” comes from the Romans and it denotes land or country. Africa therefore is literally translated as the land of the Afri. But like the indigenous people of the Americas the indigenous tribes of Africa pre-existed their European name.

The second point of consideration is that iles as a whole no longer even tries to operate under the belief that each and every member of the entire community are equal components of the whole. Many houses of Orisa worship are socio-economic models of capitalistic European cultures where the social structure is based on the strict hierarchy of feudalism. Priest and priestesses who run iles contend to protect and help their members or “serfs” from various troubles spiritual and otherwise. In return, the serfs pay fees and perform physical labor for their priest or “feudal lords”.

Members of iles can improve their status by having various rituals performed on their behalf. An ile may have a series of sub-organizations or egbes within the house that are intended to perform some important function within the spiritual realm. Each time a member obtains a pot for an Orisa they are included in the egbe intended to honor that Orisa. An egbe will be setup to venerate ancestors. Another egbes will be set aside for the men in good standing while another will be for the women of good standing. And yet, other egbes will be established for drummers, other musicians, food preparers, dancers, craftsmen, herbalist, etc. The list can be extensive.

For most children of Africa life in the United States is hard enough. Many of us don’t have the financial resources to operate independently of the economic social structure of western culture. An ile should be a place of refuge for its members against those influences designed without our benefit in mind. Each ile should have a creed over its door saying something to the effect, “Give me your tired, your poor, your African masses, yearning to breath free. The wretched refuse of America’s gentrified and forgotten neighborhoods; send these, the distressed, the tempest-tossed to me, I lift my light beside the golden door.”

Yet, instead of sanctuary and fellowship, some of us are subjected to rituals and regulations that do anything but uplift our spirits as a collective unit. Once all the rituals are performed and the ceremonies are completed, the individual members disperse to their own little corner to take on the world, until the next time. It is a too close for comfort imitation of church. It’s sad, because our community, our spiritual family, should be more important to us than that.